State Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, is leaving no issue uncovered this session.

Zedler, 69, has filed bills ranging from requiring exotic dancers in the state to obtain and display licenses while performing to protecting professors who conduct research on the theory of intelligent design from discrimination from their employers.

State Rep. Bill Zedler on the House floor (AP Photo)

Zedler first gained notoriety for leading a grassroots blockade against a Hooters restaurant set to open near his neighborhood in Arlington and was subsequently elected to the Texas House in 2003.

Now, he’s extending that moral battle to include any “sexually oriented business“, including adult video stores and strip clubs, in his recently filed bill that would require employees to obtain and display a license that includes their real name while working “to reduce risks to the public… and to prevent sex trafficking.”

Zedler said displaying their real name could be a safety issue and that he would support “a magnetic cover” on the license to hide the name.

A license would require a training program and the bill leaves much of the details, like size of the badge and violation penalties, up to the Department of Human Services.

Zedler said he visited a strip club in college but that “it was strictly a deal where they would get up and dance. There was no touching or nothing like that. There was no complete nudity.”

He said the bill is meant to “clean up the profession” and ensure minors are not able to use phony identification to gain employment.

“Some young girl gets involved in stripping and sees the kind of money that’s involved and thinks ‘Gee, that’s very enticing’,” Zedler said. “Then they get involved in drugs, prostitution and that kind of thing.”

Currently, any “sexually oriented business” that allows alcohol in Texas must pay a $5 tax on each customer. Some cities already require exotic dancers to display similar licenses.

A few weeks before setting his legislative eye on exotic dancers, Zedler filed a bill to protect professors and students at public universities from being discriminated against for conducting research on the theory of intelligent design.

Zedler said the bill was prompted by the documentary “Expelled,” which contends the theory of intelligent design hasn’t been disproved.

He said he received “a few” emails from professors that said they felt the bill was necessary, but could not provide the names or universities of the individuals. He filed a similar bill last session that died in committee.

Laurence Moran, a professor of biology at the University of Toronto, called the bill a “silly joke” and said firing a biology professor who believes in creationism is not discrimination based on religion, but discrimination based on fact and “stupidity.”

Zedler said he might expand the bill to other subjects, like history, in which “conservative perspectives” are often discriminated against at colleges.

Moran said he doesn’t expect the bill to pass. He said he can’t imagine a professor “being hired in the first place” that believes intelligent design to be the origin of species.

“A professor of biology that maintains the earth was created 6,000 years ago, that the account in the Book of Genesis is correct, and all species were created at the same time should not expect to keep their job,” he said. “That’s like a geology professor believing the world is flat being protected.”

Zedler said comparing intelligent design to the earth being flat is invalid because he hasn’t seen any facts that disprove the existence of God or intelligent design.

“I love it when someone comes to me and they want to debate with a weak argument, I love that,” Zedler said.